Diamond tufted headboard

Diamond tufted headboard

I love Diamond tufted headboards! And have been drooling over them for a while. Then I saw one on my local ‘used’ website, and I thought, I could probably make one of these with the help of my friend Pinterest. Of course there are a lot of great examples of these projects. Go to the bottom of this post to see the two that resonated with me. Here is what you will need to get you started:

Supplies:

Pegboard

Foam (Convoluted foam) 2 x 36”x 72”

Fabric – 2m of

Waxed button thread

Upholstery/Repair needle

Coverable buttons – 32

Spray adhesive

Back buttons

Felt markers

Tools:

Scissors

Jigsaw

Hammer

Stapler

Paint stir stick

A few of the supplies.

I like the idea of using pegboard for the backing. I found this easier than hunting down a used headboard. Plus, I think this keeps it quite light, so it could easily be wall-mounted if desired. A sheet of pegboard at Home Depot cost me $20. I had it cut to size in the store. I measured the mattress and decided that 5.5’ would be a good width, which allows for a bit of extra room. I wanted a very high headboard, so I originally cut it to 42”.

For the fabric, I wanted to stay with my grey theme, based on my concept bedroom, which you can see in my master bedroom post.

I went to my local Fabricland store. They have a membership program which provides pretty fabulous deals. You do not usually have to wait long for what you need to come on sale. I found this really fabulous steel grey velvet. Velvet…mmmm. Nice. It is $32/m and is 145cm (60”) wide, so it is wide enough to accommodate the height. I only needed 2m to cover the headboard and cover all those little buttons 🙂 I only had to wait a day for them to have a 50% off everything sale, which took my fabric cost from $64 to $32. Which is totally do-able. Also, the buttons, and all the notions were also 50% off. Thank you Fabricland!

Luxe velvet. So soft and pretty

Other bloggers noted that you can use the ‘egg crate’ foam from Walmart, also known as “convoluted foam” which is a lot cheaper than purchasing foam from the foam store. I did call the local foam store and they quoted me $94 for a piece of 3’ foam!! Yikes! So, I ended up going with the Walmart foam. I bought two twin sized pieces at $17 each. So the cost of the foam came to about $35, which is substantially better than $96! However, now that my foam is only 36`wide, I had to cut down my pegboard to the same size. I still think it will be high enough as it will be wall-mounted and I can adjust up or down as needed.

Next step is to affix the foam to the pegboard so it stays in place while you are working. I used Spray Adhesive it wasn’t expensive and worked fine, It only needs to stay in place while the buttons are being tufted. I laid it on top of a plastic drop cloth. You need to spray this pretty close to the board. I also sprayed between the two pieces of foam, which I placed convoluted sides together. And warning, it`s pretty smelly stuff, you will want to have the windows opened for this.

Gluing down the foam. Warning: open the windows!

I struggled with the spacing of the buttons. I started with eight holes, but I felt like the diamonds were a bit on the small side so I switched to 10 hole spacing. This meant a row of 6,7,6,7,6 for a total of 32 buttons, instead of 37 which there would have been with 10 hole spacing. Here is a shot of my board backing, with my multiple versions. A bit of a mess! Good thing I had multi-coloured markers.

Looks a bit indecisive, doesn’t it. Took me a couple of attempts. And that is my puppy Sage’s tail in the corner 🙂

I purchased my Button Cover Kit from Fabricland, and got them for 50% off. They were still pretty pricey at $20 for all of them. I didn’t find it too troublesome covering the buttons, but I have used these before. I covered all of my buttons in advance of tufting, I think it would make the job too fidgety to do them as you go. This is a great little project to do while watching your favourite show. I did like the trick of using a paint stir stick to put over the “thimble” piece before hammering, definitely saved some wear and tear on the fingers.

I started out using upholstery thread, which is polyester, and my fingers got super sore from pulling it tight and tying it off, so I switched to Waxed button thread I cannot overemphasize how AMAZING this stuff is. When you pull it through the fabric – IT STAYS TIGHT. When I was using the upholstery thread, I had to keep it taut, and it was cutting into my fingers. This stuff is AWESOME. It’s about $8, go get some, seriously, don`t use anything else. Best investment for the whole project. I even ended up going back and re-tufting the ones where I hadn’t used this thread.

Here is what it looks like part way through:

tufting, tufting, 1 2 3 😉

Tufting the headboard

I did this project with the board leaned up against my kitchen table. I did try supporting it on a couple of chairs, but found that was way more awkward. I used about 12” of thread, with a large eyed repair/upholstery needle, I knotted it and fed it through a button (for backing)and back, and then pulled that through the knot. Push the needle through your marked hole, and feed through the covered button. Push back through the same hole. Wiggle the button loose to get the needle under it, and then pull it tight. Now go to the front and pull your pleats. Then go back and cut off the needle. Separate the threads and pull them as tight as you can. Then I pulled them around the button circling from opposite directions about 3 times. Then knot and pull three times. TADA! One tuft done! After this it’s just a matter of working your way through the tufting. I started in the center, and did the whole vertical center row, and then worked my way out in a circular direction. Make sure you pull your pleats while you are going, because it will be very difficult to do them afterwards.

It took me a few days to get this done, but I picked at it when I had time. I think if you wanted to you could probably get through all of the tufting in a day.

Once the tufting is complete, go back and make sure all of your pleats are good. You still have a bit of wiggle room, before you finish. Then pull the pleats tight vertically at the top and bottom and staple the edges. I used a light duty staple gun. Pull everything nice and tight and staple in place on the back of the headboard. TADA – You`re done! Well, except for hanging it on the wall. Or you can always add a couple of 2×4`s for legs, if wall-mounting doesn’t work for you.

Isn’t she pretty? Velvety goodness.

Here is the cost breakdown:

Pegboard $20

Foam $35

Fabric $32

Waxed thread $8

Upholstery needle $3

Coverable buttons $20

Spray adhesive $8

Total cost: $125

I was hoping to pull this together for about $80, so didn’t manage to stay on budget. But I think it’s still pretty reasonable at $125, plus you get to pick your colour and texture. And considering that they are substantially more expensive to buy, it’s still a pretty good deal. Plus this was a pretty fun project!